Detection limit. In spectrophotometry, we measure the concentration of analyte by its absorbance of light. A low-concentration sample was prepared, and nine replicate measurements gave absorbances of 0.0047, 0.0054, 0.0062, 0.0060, 0.0046, 0.0056, 0.0052, 0.0044, and 0.0058. Nine reagent blanks gave values of 0.0006, 0.0012, 0.0022, 0.0005, 0.0016, 0.0008, 0.0017, 0.0010, and 0.0011.

(a) Find the absorbance detection limit with Equation 5-2.
(b) The calibration curve is a graph of absorbance versus concentration in a cell with a pathlength of 1.000 em. Absorbance is a dimensionless quantity. The slope of the calibration curve is m = 2.24 X 104 M-1• Find the concentration detection limit with Equation 5-4.